APP UPDATE 1.1.0: JOULE
= APP UPDATE 1.1.0: JOULE & SO MUCH MORE = * VAINGLORY | SEP 24, 2014 NEW HERO: JOULE! Joule is an incredibly versatile addition to the Halcyon Fold … and she shoots energy beams atop a mech! Read her full tactical breakdown here. Here are Joule’s abilities: HEAVY PLATING (HEROIC PERK) Joule takes reduced damage from basic attacks that hit her from the front and sides. Damage is reduced by 15 – 33% (level 1 – 12). ROCKET LEAP Joule leaps to a target location. Enemies caught underneath Joule take full damage and are stunned, while enemies near the impact are knocked away, slowed and take 1/3 the damage. THUNDER STRIKE Joule thrusts her sword forward, arcing a bolt of energy out through the blade. This strike deals both weapon and crystal damage in a line in front of her. When this successfully strikes an enemy, the next Thunder Strike within 7 seconds will deal bonus damage and cost extra energy. This buff can stack up to 5 times and is lost when stunned. When maxed, this ability can crit weapon damage. BIG RED BUTTON Joule fires a massive beam of energy in a target direction that continually deals damage to all targets along its path. The force of this beam pushes Joule backward during channeling. GLORY & GAME PROGRESSION Meaningful game progression has begun. At the conclusion of every match, you’ll receive “spoils of war” in the form of Glory and Karma. For now, save up your Glory to unlock new heroes. But know: We’re working on a lot more super-secret stuff for you to spend Glory on. This is only the beginning, and we can’t wait to reveal the other stuff you can spend Glory on! ‘THANK YOU’ GLORY GIFT TO EXISTING PLAYERS We said that when the time was right, we’d make sure to take care of all you early players who have provided so much feedback and have helped the game grow. Now’s that time … All players with registered Vainglory profiles PRIOR to this update have been given enough Glory to unlock all 8 original heroes you’ve been playing thus far. Thank you so much for playing and helping us improve the game during this early period before our global rollout! Brand-new to Vainglory? Don’t worry: You still have enough Glory in your account to unlock a hero. Plus, you can play anyone in the free rotation as much as you want. KARMA & AFK PUNISHMENTS The goal of Karma is to protect players who finish their matches from those who don’t. Read all about Karma here: Understanding Karma Quick Reference Sheet TUTORIAL MODE FOR BEGINNERS This update introduces a full Tutorial mode. If you’re an experienced player, you will need to enter the tutorial once, but you can exit out before finishing. “We now have our first Vainglory tutorial in place to help new players get more familiar with the mechanics and game meta, so they don’t start their first public match quite so in the dark.” —Kraken (the dev; not the creature) You’ll also notice the first sighting of a bot in this tutorial! More bot features in development. MASSIVE ENVIRONMENT & UI VISUAL UPDATES From the energy flowing off the Minion Mines to the look of the ground terrain, just about everything in the Halcyon Fold has received heaps of visual love. Explore the map to see all the updates! Many of the out-of-match menus have also received a visual overhaul. Not everything from the Apple keynote presentation of Vainglory is in this update. Some things such as the Vain crystal explosion were made possible by combining the power of our E.V.I.L. engine with Apple’s latest innovations (iPhone 6/iPhone 6 Plus; Metal; A8 chip). We’ll do our very best to make these elements ready for older devices in some form. But in their current form, elements like the Vain explosions would make most devices explode. NEW ANNOUNCER & DYNAMIC BACKGROUND MUSIC A new voice will announce your greatness in the Halcyon Fold. We tried a whole bunch of options—from male “monster truck rally” voices to a crazy-harmonic “voice of the Vain.” Ultimately, we found this ethereal voice with (a little personality) felt most epic in game. In addition, the entire game now has heroic background music. The music during matches is dynamic and contextual, meaning the music will shift as you travel between areas of the map. In future updates, we will also add special changes in intensity coinciding with action such as teamfights and Kraken attempts. (ALMOST) ALL THE HERO VOICES This update was such a huge undertaking that we wanted to include a little something extra to celebrate. So, we’ve included the voices of nearly all the remaining heroes, including Joule. Go play with your favorites to hear how they sound and what they say! Adagio fans: His voice and lore is coming next! NEW HERO EXPLORER & DETAILED STATS You’ll now find much more intricate information in the Academy. “For the fellow theory-crafters out there, we strongly believe in providing ALL the raw stats that drive high-skill gameplay right inside the app itself. With this release, you can see level-by-level stats for every ability and how each stat scales with Crystal Power & Weapon Power. Discover the major power spikes when an ability hits level 5, abuse that insanely high crystal ratio, and discover exactly why Aftershock is so strong against Glaive. (Hint: Compare his base defensive stats to others!) —SurpriseBirthday LATEST GAMEPLAY & GAME BALANCE CHANGES Your opinions matter to us! Often, the changes below are a direct result of player feedback in the forums: MINION MINES It’s no longer a waiting game. * Minion Mines will instantly begin spawning stronger minions when a mine is captured, instead of minions growing in strength over time. GOLD Gold rules everything around me. * Gold trickle increased from 150 to 210 gold per minute. * Lane gold increased by aprox 30 gold per minute. “Vainglory’s items have incredible multi-item interactions. However, we found that most games end with only ~2.5 finished items per player, and we want the typical game to end with roughly one more item in each player’s possessions. This will especially help the non-farming support roles and introduce more room for utility-based items in addition to buying just raw power.” —SurpriseBirthday TURRETS More fun, and more interesting tactically. * Almost all abilities can damage turrets now (with varying degrees of effectiveness); however, crystal no longer enhances auto-attack damage to turrets. “Using your abilities is one of the most basic premises of what makes a MOBA fun … So why then, do MOBAs frequently prevent you from using abilities to attack turrets? We want to let players use all the resources they have invested in powering up their abilities, and use it on the single most important objective in the game: Destroying turrets. Don’t worry; We are assessing turret-damage efficacy on a per-ability basis, with special emphasis on non-ultimates that are just too good at killing turrets.” —SurpriseBirthday SAW * The Roadie Run shank’s crystal ratio increased from 2.0 to 2.8. * Suppressing Fire crystal ratio reduced from 5.0 to 4.0 total damage (damage is dealt in 5 ticks over 2.5 seconds). * Mad Cannon shells’ crystal ratio reduced from 1.6 to 1.0. * Suppressing Fire now deals 60% of normal damage to minions and 30% to structures. * Max speed boost to Roadie Run from crystal scaling capped at +2.0 (at around 130 Crystal). KRUL * Dead Man’s Rush & From Hell’s Heart each apply a stack of Weakness to the target. * Dead Man’s Rush crystal damage lowered from 150 + 50 per level to 80 + 30 per level. * Dead Man’s Rush now has a 1.0 weapon ratio. * Spectral Smite cooldown increased from 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 / 8 to 13 / 12.5 / 12 / 11.5 / 11. * Spectral Smite range increased from 3.2 to 3.7. * Spectral Smite heals reduced slightly from 580 to 540 at max level and max stacks. * Spectral Smite no longer has 0.15 second animation lock at the end. * Spectral Smite can now stack weakness against Kraken & turrets. This allows Krul to deal bonus damage + healing when smiting them, while Kraken & structures are still immune to the attack speed debuff. KOSHKA * Koshka can stack Bloodrush on any enemy target; not just heroes. * Twirly Death crystal ratio increased from 0.9 to 1.2. * Can no longer activate (or WASTE!) her ultimate on summons such as Petal seeds. ADAGIO * Attack Speed per level reduced from 3.3% to 1.2%. ITEMS * Frostburn cannot affect the same target again for 1.0s after the slow wears off, but it will now always apply the full 35% slow. * The gold cost-per-point of crystal increased from 19 to 22 for Tier 3 Crystal items. (Shop prices increased.) * Reflex Block barrier reduced from 280 to 200. * Sprint Boots move speed increased from 0.3 to 0.5 (same as Travel Boots) PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS If you’re having a stability or performance issue, email: feedback@superevilmegacorp.com. SUSPEND AND RESUME * Fixed suspend and resume issues that impacted UI, specifically during hero select, party select, and the Academy. PLAYER LOGIN * F ixed various player login issues, including disappearing player names and profiles logged out or forgotten without warning. Also added a failsafe so players can log in on multiple devices. FRIENDS * Friend request notifications are now displaying properly. * Friends screen: Fixed issues with player name sorting. * Fixed text issues that occurred when adding a friend. GAMEPLAY * Glaive no longer gets stuck in rare cases after using Afterburn. * Heroes will no longer in rare instances get knocked outside of the map or through the ground. * Addressed a bug that could cause Koshka to not “stick” to an enemy with her ultimate. * Fixed issues with Surrender, including surrenders failing if multiple players issued a vote. PARTY & MATCHMAKING * Fixed the “party crash,” wherein a player’s app could crash if invited to a party by two or more friends. * Fixed instances where matches would start without all six players. * Fixed instances where the “Match Found” screen would not appear for all players who accepted. Join the conversation in the forums and let us know what you think of Joule and all this new stuff! —PlayoffBeard